Embodiments of this invention provide a method and apparatus to achieve an unprecedented aggregation of purchasing power (a “super aggregation”) by allowing each location or presence on an electronic network such as the Internet to select for display from its location, channel, or website any combination of the owner's limited-time, product-specific on-line group-buying opportunities (sometimes referred to as “PowerBuys™”) then appearing in the owner's menu of current and upcoming on-line group-buying sales. Embodiments of the invention further allow the owner's platform to provide a self-service on-line group-buying sale capability that enables sellers, even small concerns, to prepare products/services for sale by on-line group-buying sales on the owner's platform. The owner's platform preferably displays an on-line group-buying sale menu as a configurable product tree, although other display paradigms may be used. Such third party display may be on either an exclusive or a shared aggregation basis. The result is the super aggregation of a unique set of partner locations/websites that will concurrently offer, or sponsor, each one of the owner's on-line group-buying sales, and/or certain third-party on-line group-buying sales.
Embodiments of the invention also provide a method and apparatus that permits certain retailers, suppliers and/or other third parties (including customers) to create, manage and share aggregation, if desired, on on-line group-buying sales featuring their own products or services. This may be accomplished, in part, through such third parties' direct use of all or part of the owner's on-line group-buying sale set up and management tools described in the above referenced commonly assigned application, as well as a related commonly owned patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,484, that issued Aug. 8, 2000 in the names of Richard V. Halbert, Niklas Gustafsson and John M. Thrun, entitled “Dynamic Market Equilibrium Management System, Process and Article of Manufacture,” formerly U.S. application Ser. No. 09/281,859, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.
The owner's on-line group-buying sale offerings are already available to customers visiting the owner's main site (e.g., the owner's website). Other customers may arrive at the owner's site from links appearing on third-party websites, such as links that direct traffic to the site in a general way, e.g., the home page or the first page of all current on-line group-buying sales. These existing links do not direct visitors to specific on-line group-buying sales selected on the basis of the originating link. Further, the sender may not presently tailor its traffic exposure to a defined set of on-line group-buying sales that the seller deigns most likely to be of interest to its customers. While general links generate some level of participation in the owner's on-line group-buying sales, they do not deliberately funnel traffic to the owner's on-line group-buying sales on an item-by-item basis, nor do general links promote the most efficient or logical aggregation of demand for each individual on-line group-buying sale. Consequently, the methods in place may not fully harness the aggregation potential of the owner's group buying method over the Internet.
Furthermore, no sales channel is presently believed to exist through which a supplier, manufacturer, or retailer of goods and services (especially a small concern) can readily turn to create directly a potentially global market for a given product or service across a vast number of websites on the Internet. While suppliers of products and services can achieve large volume sales through the owner's demand aggregation invention (i.e., the on-line group-buying sale), all such sales are now possible for such third parties only indirectly through the owner, functioning as an Internet retailer. An aspect of this invention permits suppliers, distributors, retailers, and others to create and control their own on-line group-buying sales in either an exclusive or shared aggregation format. In this implementation, the owner's site functions as a true platform for such third party sales. As such, the owner likely will be compensated by some combination of licensing revenue (for the use of its on-line group-buying sale set up and management tools), and/or a transaction fee based on these third party managed sales, or a revenue/margin sharing arrangement.